Summary

PHUKET, THAILAND--
Three U.S. agencies are preparing to announce grants totaling $12.3 million to help speed an international effort to sequence the rice genome. The new support, outlined last week by U.S. officials at a meeting here of collaborators from 10 countries and regions, will supplement a proposed big jump in spending by Japan, which is putting up the largest share of the overall funding for the project. But organizers acknowledge that some rough spots remain, and that the additional resources do not guarantee that the work will be finished by the target date of 2004.